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Committee revises volunteer screening language, balances disqualification and continuous monitoring
Summary
Committee discussed adding 'guilty'/'no contest' language, avoiding an absolute disqualification clause for past convictions, and aligning volunteer checks with continuous monitoring systems; staff will redraft policy 5015 and bring procedural guidance for removing inactive volunteers.
Speaker 3 presented proposed volunteer-policy language that would disqualify persons listed on the offender registry or with certain convictions from serving as volunteers. Staff recommended adding language consistent with employment checks to include pleas of guilty and no-contest. Speaker 3 also explained the district has moved volunteer record checks to the employee-level system (MIB) with continuous monitoring and recommended changing "at least annually" language to reflect ongoing monitoring.
Board members raised multiple concerns. Several members said a blanket 'disqualified' statement could unfairly bar applicants with remote or long-ago incidents; Speaker 3 recommended using discretionary language—"disqualified as appropriate"—to allow case-by-case review. Privacy and operational burdens from continuous monitoring were discussed: Speaker 1 said volunteers may not realize they remain on a monitoring list for years after their children graduate, and Speaker 6 described the current list of nearly 2,800 volunteers and the costs to purge inactive records. The committee asked staff to revise the policy to (a) add 'guilty' and 'no contest' to the definitional language, (b) permit discretionary review rather than an absolute bar for past convictions, and (c) change annual rechecks to reflect continuous monitoring while adding a procedure to notify volunteers and purge inactive names if no response is received.
The committee moved policy 5015 to first reading by consensus with those edits and directed staff to return with revised policy text and recommended procedures for monitoring and removal.
